FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is soap?

The combination of fats or oils with an alkaline base to produce a substance which cleans.

Why use handcrafted soap over commercial soap?

To start handcrafted soaps are made with lots of care and love. On a better note, it has all of its natural glycerin left in it. Glycerin is what attacks moisture to your skin keeping it moisturized. Many of the commercial grade soaps are one a detergent and the natural glycerin removed (which they sell to cosmetic companies) and replaced with synthetic glycerin which has less of an impact than the naturally occurring glycerin.

Are the ingredients organic?

If we are able to get the ingredients organic we do but not everything is organic. We make sure that the suppliers we do source are providing the best quality, are free of animal testing, and are sustainable.

How is Denali Dreams soap made?

We use the cold process method to make our soap. We start by melting fats and oils together, and mixing water and sodium hydroxide together. When each are at around the same temperature we mix them together. In the beginning of this process the mixture will have the consistency of olive oil, when the soap starts to saponify (to become soap) it will have the consistency of pancake batter. Right before we pour into the molds this is where the scent and colorants are added. Once poured into the mold, the soap sits for two days before it can be cut. After the two days of chemical changes it is pulled from the molds to be cut, groomed and stamped. After grooming, the soap must sit on for an entire month before it can be wrapped. In this stage 20% of the water weight evaporates from the soap making it a harder that will last longer in the sink or shower. That is how we make simple ingredients into soap for your bubbly enjoyment.

Do we make lye soap?

Lye soap was made before we knew how to calculate how much lye was needed to saponify each oil. Each oil has a different amount of lye needed to make a soap molecule. Most of the time the recipe was a guess of how much of each oil and lye was needed. Lots of times there was too much lye in the recipe, hence the name Lye Soap. Now when soap is made we have calculators and formulas to help ensure that there is just enough lye and oils to make the perfect soap.